The Effects of Smartphones on Well-Being: Theoretical Integration and Research Agenda

TL;DR

This paper proposes a theoretical framework to understand how smartphones impact well-being through displacement, interference, and complementarity, highlighting methodological issues and mediators to guide future research.

Contribution

It introduces an integrated theoretical model for smartphone effects on well-being, unifying diverse research findings and outlining a comprehensive research agenda.

Findings

Identifies three key hypotheses explaining smartphone effects

Highlights methodological challenges in current research

Outlines mediators and moderators influencing well-being

Abstract

As smartphones become ever more integrated in peoples lives, a burgeoning new area of research has emerged on their well-being effects. We propose that disparate strands of research and apparently contradictory findings can be integrated under three basic hypotheses, positing that smartphones influence well-being by (1) replacing other activities (displacement hypothesis), (2) interfering with concurrent activities (interference hypothesis), and (3) affording access to information and activities that would otherwise be unavailable (complementarity hypothesis). Using this framework, we highlight methodological issues and go beyond net effects to examine how and when phones boost versus hurt well-being. We examine both psychological and contextual mediators and moderators of the effects, thus outlining an agenda for future research.